Ben C. Smith wrote: ↑Sat Jul 07, 2018 7:05 pm
One needs to explain the overt similarities between our Christian texts and the Dead Sea Scrolls. How do you propose we bridge the gap?
I think there is a persistent gap. The Dead Sea Scroll manuscripts are a wide variety of texts. Many of these texts - 40% of those so far identified - are a collection of copies of the actual books of the Hebrew Scriptures, texts that all Jews would have had and read.
Another 30% are texts from the Second Temple Period which ultimately were not canonized in the Hebrew Bible, like the Book of Enoch, the Book of Jubilees, the Book of Tobit, the Wisdom of Sirach, Psalms 152–155, etc.
The remainder (roughly 30%) are sectarian manuscripts of previously unknown documents that shed light on the rules and beliefs of a particular group (sect) or groups within greater Judaism, like the Community Rule, the War Scroll, the Pesher on Habakkuk, and The Rule of the Blessing. Many of these scrolls show us is the kind of challenges that could be brought against some of the traditional lines of Jewish thought and even the operation of the Temple itself, and have been
associated with the Essenes. They interpreted Scripture, especially the prophets, Isaiah, the Torah itself, to suggest that the course of Judaism is going through a profound change. In their understanding, there will come a day when the Lord revisits the Earth with power. And in the process establishes a new kingdom for Judaism. It will be like the kingdom of David and Solomon.
It is said they literally abandoned Jerusalem in protest at the way the Temple was being run. They are said to have been apocalyptic and messianic. And separatist and sectarian.
There are striking similarities between the description of an initiation ceremony of new members in the Community Rule and descriptions of the Essene initiation ceremony mentioned in the works of Flavius Josephus.
Robert Eisenman vigorously posits his theory that the later, non-biblical "sectarian" scrolls must be viewed in the context of a wider first-century CE “Opposition Movement,” including Essenes, Zealots, Sicarii, and/or Nazoreans, and particularly the Ebionites, who he posits as the early Judeo-Christian community of Jerusalem and whose leader was James, the brother of Jesus, also the Scrolls' Teacher of Righteousness. Eisenman has thus created a strong link between the Scrolls and the perception of a pre-Pauline Jewish Christian community.
It has sometimes been suggested that Jesus, himself, or maybe even John the Baptist, were members of this group, but i understand that can't be proven.
Scholars have argued that the scrolls were the product of Jews living in Jerusalem, who hid the scrolls in the caves near Qumran while fleeing from the Romans during the destruction of Jerusalem in 70 CE. Karl Heinrich Rengstorf first proposed that the Dead Sea Scrolls originated at the library of the Jewish Temple in Jerusalem. Later, Norman Golb suggested that the scrolls were the product of multiple libraries in Jerusalem, and not necessarily the Jerusalem Temple library. Proponents of the Jerusalem Origin theory point to the diversity of thought and handwriting among the scrolls as evidence against a Qumran origin of the scrolls. Several archaeologists have also accepted an origin of the scrolls other than Qumran, including Yizhar Hirschfeld and most recently Yizhak Magen and Yuval Peleg, who all understand the remains of Qumran to be those of a Hasmonean fort that was reused during later periods.
Some have argued that Zadokites (Sadducees) wrote the scrolls eg. the work of Lawrence H. Schiffman. The most important document in support of this view is the "Miqsat Ma'ase Ha-Torah" (4QMMT), which cites purity laws (such as the transfer of impurities) identical to those attributed in rabbinic writings to the Sadducees. 4QMMT also reproduces a festival calendar that follows Sadducee principles for the dating of certain festival days.
For Rome we have Paul's epistle to the Romans, which presupposes a Christian community there even before Paul was set to arrive.
Certainly 'Romans' does presuppose a Christian community before Paul was set to arrive. Robert Price calls it "a patchwork quilt stitched together by the hands of various Paulinists with competing views", and asks "What might be the historical occasion for the nucleus to which all the rest was eventually added? What if the trip to Rome anticipated by the writer is that of Marcion when he brought a contribution to the church at Rome and set forth his gospel before its elders?" (
The Amazing Colossal Apostle: The Search for the Historical Paul, Kindle Locations 4979-4982).
Price says Rom 1:8-17 "makes more sense as a fragment of an actual letter from Marcion himself announcing his intention to visit Rome, which he did. In Paul’s day there was no church there, according to Acts. But in our epistle, there is already an established congregation before Paul visits." and it? It all makes more sense as the announcement of Marcion to preach among them a version of the gospel they may not have heard. We know he did, in fact, “audition” his gospel in Rome, hoping to be acclaimed bishop there. (Kindle Locations 5036-5038; 5041-5044).
About Rom 1:18 - 2:29, he says "This section is the text of a Hellenistic Jewish synagogue sermon.[1] L. Gordon Rylands[2] understood this section as originally a part of a Gnostic epistle, precisely because of its affinity with Philonic, philosophical Judaism, from which he thought Gnosticism grew. He may have been quite right about the affinity to Philo, but that hardly makes it Gnostic. There is absolutely nothing Gnostic about this section in its own right. I regard it as a Jewish text, following J. C. O’Neill. It would have been added by a Catholic redactor who liked the positive evaluation of Jewish Law. All the better that gentiles are not required to keep the Jewish code, despite its divine authority." (Kindle Locations 5118-5123)
Price says much of Rom 3 "is Catholic-retooled Paulinism, genuine Pauline insights harmonized with the Old Testament. The prerogative of the Christian God to judge is affirmed, as well as documented from Jewish scripture. The Marcionite opposition of Torah and gospel is retained ..."
For Syria we have Paul's epistle to the Galatians; we also have the triangulation of the Didache, the gospel of Matthew, and the epistles of Ignatius (whether forged or not) — arguments have been made for many years by many different scholars of very different perspectives to the effect that these texts hail from Syria (and I, for one, accept various arguments made by scholars of the Didache that it contains materials which predate the gospel of Matthew and probably also even the apostle Paul himself).
I would accept that texts such as the Didache is likely to predate the gospel of Matthew and probably also even the apostle Paul himself.
I'm sceptical of the the epistles of Ignatius being early (they may not be forged, but they may also not be factual).
Galatians is multi-layered as if having gone through the hands of various redactors. Price says
Following van Manen, I take Marcion as the author, partly because of the striking comment of Tertullian in Against Marcion that 'Marcion nactus epistolam Pauli ad Galatas': “Marcion has discovered Paul’s Epistle to the Galatians” (5.3.1). Tertullian later adds that “Marcion, discovering the Epistle of Paul to the Galatians” [and] uses it to “destroy the character of these Gospels which are published as genuine and under the names of the apostles” (4.3.1). If we take the word discover in its literal sense, these comments could imply that no one had seen the epistle before and that ... Marcion wrote the core of Galatians (chapters 3-6), and posed as Paul to an audience of early followers who were beginning to yield to the propaganda of Catholicizing Christianity. It is the Catholic devotion to the Torah that Marcion combats, not necessarily the attachment to the Hebrew Bible that a Jewish Christian might hold. The first two chapters are later additions by Marcionites who wanted to counter the story of Paul in Acts, where Paul has been co-opted by Catholic Christianity.
Price, Robert M.. The Amazing Colossal Apostle: The Search for the Historical Paul (Kindle Locations 8808-8822). Signature Books. Kindle Edition.
